Meeting the millennium poverty reduction targets in Latin America and the Caribbean

Includes bibliography

Globalizing talent and human capital: implications for developing countries

Includes bibliography

Modelagem do escoamento e da transferência de calor ao longo de tubos capilares não adiabáticos

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Modelagem do escoamento transiente ao longo de trocadores de calor tubo capilar-linha de sucção

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

O PRONAF nos municípios de Caiuá e Teodoro Sampaio - SP

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Entre a independência e o endividamento: análise da contrarreforma agrária pelo Banco da Terra

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Banco do Vaticano: uma análise econômico-financeira

This thesis work aims to bring a better viewing on an atypical case of financial analysis. The lstituto per le Opere di Religione (IOR), commonly known as the Vatican Bank, has peculiarities according to its goals as a bank. Belonging to a Catholic religious congregation, IOR has been used to manage the resources of the church, and ensure that these resources are used for the operation of it and, also for religious works. However the financial transactions made by the bank remained secret throughout its existence until mid 2012. This feature of not providing relevant information at the local and international community brought harm. Several cases of corruption and money laundering came up, bringing scandals that cause bad looks for the religious entity. In order to interact with the international community and understanding the importance of it, the Roman Apostolic Catholic Church decides to joing the international accounting procedures (IFRS) and went on to provide yearly financial statement reports and other information from its bank from 2012 . Thus, this thesis work takes on the role of analyzing the financial statements of the IOR and present its economic and financial health from the Capital Structure ratios, liquidity and profitability in the period 2012-2014. Overall, there has been a significant reduction in indebtedness 548% in 2012 to 362% in 2014. However, such an index showing is still high. In addition, the debt profile remained bad (87.47% short-term in 2014). The Liquidity ratios, both indices fell during the analysed period. Noteworthy is that even with retractions, the indices are equal or greater than 1, which indicates financial footing able to pay off debts. Regarding profitability, in 2013 it represented atypical moment, considering the economic performance of the IOR in the investigated period. There was decrease in profits this year, which resulted in great loss of the indicators in 2013. For the previous and subsequent...

Facets of Gender : Analyses of the Family and the Labour Market

This thesis contains four different studies on the dynamics of gender in households and workplaces. The relationship between family life and work life is in focus, particularly in the paper on labour market outcomes after divorce. In the introductory chapter, the Swedish context is briefly described. The description focuses on gender differences in the labour market and in the home. Theories concerning the division of work in the household are discussed, as are two theories on labour market discrimination, viz. taste discrimination and statistical discrimination. The theory part is concluded with a discussion of social closure processes and gendered organizational structures. The Reproduction of Gender. Housework and Attitudes Towards Gender Equality in the Home Among Swedish Boys and Girls. The housework boys and girls age 10 to 18 do, and their attitudes towards gender equality in the home are studied. One aim is to see whether the work children do is gendered and if so, whether they follow their parents’, often gendered, pattern in housework. A second aim is to see whether parents’ division of work is related to the children’s attitude towards gender equality in the home. The data used are taken from the Swedish Child Level of Living Survey (Child-LNU) 2000. Results indicate that girls and boys in two-parent families are more prone to engage in gender-atypical work the more their parent of the same sex engages in this kind of work. The fact that girls still do more housework than boys indicates that housework is gendered work also among children. No relation between parents’ division of work and the child’s attitude towards gender equality in the home was found. Dependence within Families and the Household Division of Labor – A Comparison between Sweden and the United States. This paper assesses the relative explanatory value of the resource-bargaining perspective and the doing-gender approach in analysing the division of housework in the United States and Sweden from the mid-1970s to 2000. Data from the Swedish Level of Living Survey (LNU) and the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) were used. Overall results indicate that housework is truly gendered work in both countries during the entire period. Even so, the results also indicate that gender deviance neutralization is more pronounced in the United States than in Sweden. Unlike Swedish women, American women seem to increase their time spent in housework when their husbands are to some extent economically dependent on them, as if to neutralize the presumed gender deviance. Divorce and Labour Market Outcomes. Do Women Suffer or Gain? In this paper, the interconnected nature of work and family is studied by looking at labour market outcomes after divorce. The data used are retrospective work and family histories collected in LNU 1991. A hazard regression model with competing risks reveals that women’s chances of improving their occupational prestige appear to be better after divorce compared to before. Increased working hours and perhaps also increased energy invested in the job may pay off in better occupational opportunities. Worth noting, however, is that the outcome among women with a less firm labour market attachment is more often to a job of lower prestige than one of higher prestige. Hence, the labour market outcome for women after divorce is to some extent conditioned by their labour market attachment at the time of divorce. Men, on the other hand, in most cases seem to suffer occupationally from divorce. For separated men the risk of negative changes in occupational prestige is greater than for cohabiting men. Formal On-the-job Training. A Gender-Typed Experience and Wage- Related Advantage? Formal on-the-job training (FOJT) can have a positive impact on wages and on promotion opportunities. According to theory and earlier research, a two-step model of gender inequality in FOJT is predicted: First, women are less likely than men to take part in FOJT and, second, once women do get the more remunerative training, they are not rewarded for their new skills to the same extent as men are. Pooled cross-sectional data from the Swedish Survey of Living Conditions (ULF) in the mid-nineties were used. Results show that women are significantly less likely than men to take part in FOJT. Among those who do receive training, women are more likely to take part in industry-specific training, whereas men are more likely to participate in general training and training that increases promotion opportunities. The two latter forms of training significantly raise a man’s annual earnings but not a woman’s. Hence, the theoretical model is supported and it is argued that this gender inequality is partly due to employers’ discriminatory practices.

Gender-fair Language Changes the Social Perception of Professional Groups: The Case of German and Italian.

Gender-fair language, including women and men, such as word pairs has a substantial impact on the mental representation, as a large body of studies have shown. When using exclusively the masculine form as a generic, women are mentally significantly less represented than men. Word pairs, however, lead to a higher cognitive inclusion of women. Surprisingly little research has been conducted to understand how the perception of professional groups is affected by gender-fair language. Providing evidence from an Italian-Austrian cross-cultural study with over 400 participants, we argue that gender-fair language impacts the perception of professional groups, in terms of perceived gender-typicality, number of women and men assumed for a profession, social status and average income. Results hint at a pervasive pay-off: on the one hand, gender-fair language seems to boost the mental representations in favor of women and professions are perceived as being rather gender-neutral. On the other hand professional groups are assigned lower salary and social status with word pairs. Implications of results are discussed.

Why do individuals behave differently in commons dilemmas?: The case of alpine farmers using common property pastures in Grindelwald, Switzerland

The sustainable use of common-pool resources depends on users’ behaviour with regards to appropriation and provision. Most knowledge about behaviour in such situations comes from experimental research. As experiments take place in confined environments, motivational drivers and actions in the field might differ. This paper analyses farmers’ use of common property pastures in Grindelwald, Switzerland. Binary logistic regression is applied to survey data to explore the effect of farmers’ attributes on livestock endowment, appropriation and provision behaviour. Furthermore, Q methodology is used to assess the impact of broader contextual variables on the sustainability of common property pastures. It is shown that the strongest associations exist between (a) socio-economic attributes and change in livestock endowment; (b) norms and appropriation behaviour; and (c) area and pay-off and provision behaviour. Relevant contextual variables are the economic value of the resource units, off-farm income opportunities, and the subsidy structure. We conclude that with increasing farm size farmers reduce the use and maintenance of common property. Additionally, we postulate that readiness to maintain a resource increases with appropriation activities and the net returns generated from appropriation.

Sistema CAES en un domo salino integrando el almacenamiento de energía térmica

Este proyecto ha tenido por objetivo el estudio de la viabilidad de instalar un sistema de almacenamiento subterráneo de aire comprimido enlazado con una central térmica en España. Dentro de las diversas posibilidades para emplazar el sistema CAES se ha seleccionado el domo salino, por ser la estructura geológica más favorable técnica y económicamente. Con el cometido de encontrar la ubicación más favorable se escogió el domo de Salinas de Añana, y por cercanía geográfica con éste se seleccionó la central térmica de Iberdrola C. T. Pasajes. Una vez elegidos el domo y la central se realizó un estudio de viabilidad técnica y económica de la instalación, empleando estudios geológicos, gravimétricos y económicos. Tras dichos estudios se concluyó que la instalación es posible técnicamente en el domo Salinas de Añana y que se recuperará la inversión a partir del octavo año. ABSTRACT This project has aimed to study the feasibility of installing a system of underground storage of compressed air linked to a thermal plant in Spain. Among the different possibilities to place the CAES system is selected salt dome, as the technically and economically most favorable geological structure. The better dome was Salinas de Añana for its location and Iberdrola C.T. Pasajes was the nearest thermal power plant. Before the dome and thermal power plant were chosen, was performed a technical and economic studies using geological, gravimetric and economic studies. These studies concluded that is possible execute a CAES system in Salinas de Añana dome. The initial investment will pay off the eighth year.

Temperature influence on the physical and mechanical properties of a porous rock: San Julian's calcarenite

This work discusses the results from tests which were performed in order to study the effect of high temperatures in the physical and mechanical properties of a calcarenite (San Julian's stone). Samples, previously heated at different temperatures (from 105 °C to 600 °C), were tested. Non-destructive tests (porosity and ultrasonic wave propagation) and destructive tests (uniaxial compressive strength and slake durability test) were performed over available samples. Furthermore, the tests were carried out under different conditions (i.e. air-cooled and water-cooled) in order to study the effect of the fire off method. The results show that uniaxial compressive strength and elastic parameters (i.e. elastic modulus and Poisson's ratio), decrease as the temperature increases for the tested range of temperatures. A reduction of the uniaxial compressive strength up to 35% and 50% is observed in air-cooled and water-cooled samples respectively when the samples are heated to 600 °C. Regarding the Young's modulus, a fall over 75% and 78% in air-cooled and water-cooled samples respectively is observed. Poisson's ratio also declines up to 44% and 68% with the temperature in air-cooled and water-cooled samples respectively. Slake durability index also exhibits a reduction with temperature. Other physical properties, closely related with the mechanical properties of the stone, are porosity, attenuation and propagation velocity of ultrasonic waves in the material. All exhibit considerable changes with temperature.

Letter from Lemuel Shaw to Susanna Shaw, January 3, 1797

This single page handwritten letter was sent from Lemuel Shaw to his mother, Susanna, during his freshman year at Harvard. In the letter, he requested that his mother wash and return his dirty laundry and send him clothes, including a pair of overalls, some neck-handkerchiefs, and a new hat. Shaw also asked for money to be sent to pay off his debt of $21.25 to Mr. Richard Hunnewell for board and rent, $18.93 for the previous quarter’s bill, and $1.15 for Mr. Timothy Alden, the College Butler.

Portugal. In economics, we call it conflict of interest! CEPS Commentary, 12 April 2013

Faced with limited options for coming up with the funds needed to pay off the next instalment on its bailout loan, Portugal is advised in this Commentary by economist Leonor Coutinho to trim the number of public sector employees, in combination with an increase in public sector working hours, among the lowest in Europe. In her view, these measures will have the best long-term implications both in terms of fiscal sustainability and of labour productivity, and may finally allow the country to resume the catching-up process that has been stalled since the start of EMU.

Ukraine on the financial front – the problem of Ukraine’s foreign public debt. OSW COMMENTARY NUMBER 178|05.08.2015

One of the key challenges that Ukraine is facing is the scale of its foreign debt (both public and private). As of 1st April it stood at US$ 126 billion, which is 109.8% of the country’s GDP. Approximately 45% of these financial obligations are short-term, meaning that they must be paid off within a year. Although the value of the debt has fallen by nearly US$ 10 billion since the end of 2014 (due to the private sector paying a part of the liabilities), the debt to GDP ratio has increased due to the recession and the depreciation of the hryvnia. The value of Ukraine’s foreign public debt is also on the rise (including state guarantees); since the beginning of 2015 it has risen from US$ 37.6 billion to US$ 43.6 billion. Ukraine does not currently have the resources to pay off its debt. In this situation a debt restructuring is necessary and this is one of the top priorities for the Ukrainian government as well as for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and its assistance programme. Without this it will be much more difficult for Ukraine to overcome the economic crisis.